The Doktor's Spyglass

Chapter 9.1

The gate guards at the Margravine's manse let them through without a word. One of them took a lantern and led Thijis and the doktor around the front of the house to a side door, an arched oaken thing studded with iron that looked like the entrance to some ancient keep. It opened as they approached, and Jantis emerged, silent and serious. His dark eyes took them in quickly and thoroughly, and he moved aside to let them in.

The butler led them into a sparsely furnished room just down a narrow hallway and shut the door. A plain but well made table filled most of the room, surrounded by matching wooden chairs. There were no cushions, and the walls were stone—finished, but unpaneled. The rest of the mansion was adorned with polished exotic woods and hand-painted wallpaper and a variety of impressive textured fabrics that oozed old wealth, but not this room. This room was a place for business. A place where the walls and furniture were simple and hard and easily washed.

Jantis seated himself in the chair nearest the door and gestured. Thijis pushed Helg into a chair, not gently, and then sat down beside him.

"You might have sent word," Jantis said. "We have more...politic ways of handling these matters. The Margravine is not accustomed to harboring known fugitives at her personal residence. Especially those who stink of the sewer."

Thijis grinned. "My apologies, Jantis. I'm afraid I was forced to improvise a bit."

"I'd say so."

"I assume you have someplace you can hold him," Thijis said, lighting his last cigarette. He'd been saving it for just this moment.

"Not here," said Jantis. "The Warrens. We have safehouses, above and belowground. Having him here is...dangerous."

Thijis raised an eyebrow and glanced at Helg, who sat still and dumb, uninterested; he'd gone away again, retreating into the tenebrous reaches of his mind.

"I'll need to talk to Mother, and I'll need access to the doktor at all times." Thijis doffed his hat, slicking back his hair. It was in need of a trim. "I haven't had the chance to question him properly," he lied.

"The Margravine is not at home. Nor do we use that name here. And under the circumstances, I think it would be best if you accompanied Doktor Helg."

Thijis shook his head. "I've got to be able to move freely. I can't help my client from hiding."

"You can't help your client by dying, either," said Jantis. "Were the Margravine here—"

"Where is she?" Thijis interjected. "It's important. Matters have...evolved, as you can see."

"Word of your arrival has already been sent. I am not privy to Lady Hevrany's every movement, nor would I be free to share them with you if I were."

"Or inclined to, I gather," said Thijis.

Jantis nodded. "Precisely."

"Look, Jantis, I'd be lying if I said I completely understood why Mother hired me, but if she took me for some patsy, then I'll have to politely decline. I'm going to do the job she's paying me for, until she tells me otherwise. But I won't do it fumbling about in the dark."

Jantis looked at him closely. "Tell me what it is you need, and I can put a variety of resources at your disposal. But I'm afraid that letting you leave here would be reckless."

"Letting me leave?"

"I'm afraid you may have misjudged the seriousness of this situation, Mr. Thijis." The butler's tone was as civil as always, but a slight tightening around his eyes betrayed a change of tenor in the conversation. Thijis felt his heart beat a little faster.